Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sarah woke with a start half trying to jump out of her chair. Only for it all to end in tragedy when said chair went tumbling over with her still in it. She hit the ground with and took a moment to untangle herself from the obviously dangerous chair. Once she was done she stood up straightened her hair and outfit and most importantly, checked the clock. Which once again hadn’t moved since the last time she checked.

"Are you just being difficult... Or are you serious?" She muttered while squinting at the clock. You could never trust clocks, the break room clock was typically trustworthy but in those rare cases.

*BEEP*

Slowly she turned from the clock too look where the sound came from. Her eyes leaving the clock at the last second. A small Facebook chat pop up on the break room PC. Strange because she never actually had a Facebook, or had any friends on said nonexistent Facebook. Taking a step forward and righting the downed chair she sat down and clicked the pop up.

SF: Hello, my name is Nyla. I don't know who you guys are, and you don't know me, but I get the feeling that we need to meet up soon. If you get this message, then help me coordinate a meeting.
There appear to be seven of us.

Sarah looked at it for a minute. Was this a trap? Looking back tot he clock to confirm it was still her break.

"I've got a few minutes..."

IT: I don't know who you are or how you got onto my Friends list. But I got some time before I gotta get back to work...

"Hey girl. Better clean up the back room it's on the list."" The glowing skeleton said from the couch.

"Shut up Bones. I'm busy." The skeleton shrugged.

In all honesty, playing this game was an awful idea. Rolyat had been expecting some sort of simulation game, multiplayer in the sense that the server player designed the world around the character of the client player who had to navigate and react to certain simulations. It had been her thought that she could play both roles as a form of entertaining study on how many different choices a person could make when greeted with an unfamiliar and unexpected situation. What she had not been expecting was for it to be very real in affecting her surroundings. Not only that, but she didn't realized how limited her choices were at the start.

Her biggest regret is that she didn't bring others in with her in order to use them as her study subjects to test how they cope with it and how it affects them psychologically.

Entering the medium itself wasn't hard, it was actually incredibly simple to figure out. If it weren't such a strange situation itself and the fact that her lusus tried to grab the kernelsprite and ended up being absorbed into it, she might've been bored with the simplicity. Fortunately, she was kept interested and on her toes with the unexpected, and upon entering the medium via her entry item had left her water-pocket respiteblock, hopped into the cave hallways with much less water in it that it should have, and swam to the crack that made up the entrance into her hive.

Normally, she would be swimming straight through it. Now, however, it seemed as though a good half of the water had drained through it until the water level was just under the crack itself. This made her have to haul herself up onto it to slip flexibly through it, followed by her Octojellymomsprite who ghosts right through the cave wall. Her once hidden, secluded grotto hive was now out of place and very noticeable, surrounded by a large saltwater puddle and soggy books. Worst of all, however, is that it is BRIGHT. Illuminated by an unseen source, but her natural reaction is to hurry back into the safety of her hive before she burns up in the sun. Before she can fully think on the fact that it's not Alternia's sun more thoroughly, her Trollian chimes twice from both phones in her sylladex.

Fetching one from her storybook modus, she scans the invite into a memo by an unfamiliar handle and accepts it immediately. After checking her chumplist, she confirms that these are the only handles in it, and that they're all strangers. A few of them chime off, and at first she observes it without comment, to assess the situation. She comes to her conclusions pretty quickly, given what's happened and the strangeness of this all, but they still need to be confirmed.

SF:Hello, my name is Nyla. I don't know who you guys are, and you don't know me, but I get the feeling that we need to meet up soon. If you get this message, then help me coordinate a meeting.
There appear to be seven of us.


IT: I don't know who you are or how you got onto my Friends list. But I got some time before I gotta get back to work...

CR: <^>--> ^ have no ^>ea what's go^ng on, but ^'m game.

[AI] > What.. uh.. where.. is this? What am I doing here? How did you get on my Gaunt?

GM: MAGOOSTALATIONS FRIENDS! HOW ART THEE! TIS A WONDERFUL DAY TO DIE IN THE MOST GRUESOME WAY! THERE IS A BRIGHT ORB TO!!!!

DC: ║ Make that eight of us. I noticed someone online who isn't in the chat, so I hope you don't mind that I invited them as well. I'm assuming that we all share the same predicament in which all of our former contacts were erased to be replaced with the others of us, anyways. ║
DC: ║ My name is Rolyat Neirbo, it is nice to meet you all. Before we arrange any meeting, I think it is necessary to at least confirm some things. ║
DC: ║ I'll start us off by explaining what has happened on my end. I decided to play a game called SGRUB solo, though the instructions specifically stated to never play alone. I successfully completed what I assume to be the tutorial mode and was transported to an unfamiliar land with books lying around, but as it was uncomfortably bright I went back inside. The light wasn't burning though I stood in it for a few moments, so probably not Alternia's sun. ║
DC: ║ Now I'm standing inside with my lusus-turned-ghostly version of herself courtesy of the orb released by the Cruxtruder. │ The seadweller troll girl hopes that everyone is still following along alright, as she takes a seat to let the next person explain. ║

Yes, she types pretty fast and got all that information out in a timely manner. That much info is just a small summary of what's going on as well, but she felt it needed to be said. Now the ball is in their court.

A huge pile of rubble lay where once majestic natural cavern walls stood, carved out by generations of water coursing through the ground. Though a trickle had continued cutting rivulets into the floor, the water had long since migrated toward the lower chambers, pooling in deep, crystalline underground lakes. After the cave in, one such trickle of water had been misdirected and now dripped and splashed its way into the center of a particularly large cave-in. The stone heap seemed to have buried some huge beast, as a large tail tip and a viciously clawed foot could be seen protruding from beneath it.

The spectral skull of a sheep hovered near the scene, apparently stalking whatever had been buried as though haunting the creature that had ended its life. The ethereal animal seemed equally torn between a compulsion to rush forward and another to flee. It began to close the distance, bathing the cavern room in an eerie purple wash as it slowly floated inch by inch. A small rock fell from the cavern above, landing on the creature’s foot and startling the apparition. It froze, unable to make any rational decision, more unsure and compelled than ever.

Suddenly, its mind seemed made up for it, as it launched headlong into the rubble, only to emerge from the other side. It began looping around, launching itself through the rock pile in an attempt to awaken the beast. A low rumble could be heard, either the beast’s protests or a small tremor indicating the cavern settling onto a new piece of land. Either way, the morbid spectre was given some pause. It received its answer as some rubble began to shift slightly. With a mix of terror and unexplainable excitement, it disappeared into the pile of stones once more, only to be sent scurrying at the sound of a massive, fire belching sneeze. In such a damp environment and with so little fuel, the flame quickly dissipated, leaving only plumes of smoke that encircled the ceiling. The beast’s tail lurched a bit, and its claws clenched the smoothly polished stone ground hard enough to dig into it. The room was filled with an unmistakable growl as the huge stones began shifting more noticeably.

With a roar unlike any who remain among the living can claim to have heard, the might of the dragon was displayed as stones went flying in every direction. The powerful creature held its deafening roar for nearly a minute after bursting from its trappings, very clearly voicing its displeasure at the entire situation. Echoes of the bellow rebounded and shattered, spreading throughout the expansive caverns that had long served as the dragon’s home, the sound itself bringing about smaller crashing sounds as loose stones fell into water or shattered onto the solid floor.

The dragon snorted to try and remove the water that had been trickling onto its nose, and then, with a wild eyed fury, spun in place in search of invaders and growling menacingly. When nothing could be seen, CuuLithorin visibly relaxed.
He could have sworn there had been something in here with him.
His eyes narrowed for an instant before he began to recall what had happed over the last several hours. He hadn’t been expecting meteors… or such a literal interpretation of role playing. Had he truly ENTERED the game itself? It was beyond reason, even for one such as himself. And yet, here he stood, in the obvious aftermath of whatever had happened.

At that thought, he became panicked. His home… he could clearly tell it had been largely destroyed. He had lived here for a quarter of a century. He had been very proud of it, having found such a place uncontested during Claiming Season. It had been perfect… his own mountain filled with natural pools and geysers that had carved a network of tunnels, all surrounded by vast forests filled with wildlife to hunt and edged by several human cities for him to integrate and hunt for… other things. Now though, it seemed he would either have to relocate or rebuild. Neither option seemed terribly appealing.

With another deep growl, he concluded that he could better decide once he’d eaten. With a single sweep from ceiling to floor of his wings, Cuulithorin launched himself through the hole that had replaced the rubble that buried him. Despite the convenience, his anger at the hole was displayed with another plume of flame that dispersed as his tail disappeared through it.

He made his way out of the side of his mountain in very short order, and immediately reeled in shock and another feeling he wasn’t so accustomed to. Though he’d never admit it, he felt sudden terror. His hearts pounded and his stomachs tangled with each other as he looked wildly about for the forests, cities or even the horizon, but all he saw was…

Another cavern. His entire mountain was inside another cavern. Somehow. It didn’t make any sense. It couldn’t be possible. He was beside himself. As he stared in panicked disbelief, he noticed an unearthly purple reflecting from his scales. With incredible speed, he swung wide in the air to dodge what he assumed was a magic projectile, coming around to face the ghostly sheep’s skull.

He enveloped it in flame for nearly two minutes.

It simply hung in the air, completely unfazed.

He snarled in frustration and dove to the ground--it looked like he’d have to use tomes to fight it, which meant he’d have to fight it in human form. He landed hard on the cold stone floor of the massive chamber, sending a huge dust cloud into the air. His transformation was fast and efficient. He had a spell tome out of his sylladex in short order and looked to where he thought the ghost would come from- only to find it inches from his face.
GAH!!
He recoiled, took a small hop backward and used the spell tome in an instant. The blast did absolutely nothing. He was completely taken aback. This was a very powerful tome, and he KNEW he was using it correctly. He waited for some kind of attack, so he could properly retaliate, but none came. The skull simply stared, eyeless. It suddenly became agitated, turning to the right and recoiling. Cuulithorin reacted instantly, blasting the area it had indicated. All that remained was a smoking puddle of… ink? He looked around more carefully and saw a number of imp like creatures slowly advancing. At the sound of his phone going off, he decided that he should return to his disheveled home and reassess his situation. He leapt into the air, partially changing as his feet left the ground.



nside the game. I’m literally inside it.



Once he reached his mountain entrance once more, he took out his phone and saw the messages.


hat? Who on earth are these people…??”



He didn’t recognize a single one of them. He read over what they’d been saying, and it seemed he wasn’t alone, even aside from what he now assumed was going to be some sort of companion that he had no choice but to allow. It had already followed him inside.

AS:

ell, this is certainly going to be interesting. I suppose you’ll all come to see my greatness in the days to come. I am CuuLithorin, but for your ease, you may call me Charles. You may not call my anything else. I do not allow nicknames, and you will find my intolerance holds a price should you ignore my warning. In any case, I look forward to carrying our team, such as it is.





He took a deep breath and looked to the floating skull. It seemed incapable of speech. He couldn’t fathom what purpose it could possibly serve.

Glitterscale stared at the screen for a moment, reading the most recent message from Nyla on her chat client.

SF: This is going to sound really weird, but we need to head towards where the sun is. That's where we'll meet up. So, head that way, and we can figure out what's going on here.

CR: <^>--> The sun? So as close as possible to the sun? Ooh, I don't know if I could handle the heat, but I'll try I guess.

"Is Nyla right, SAIL?" She asked, unsure of the whole situation. "Do I have to go close to the sun?"




"You need to get to Skaia. Progress through the gates."










Glitterscale sighed, and looked around her now defunct ship, trying to decide if there was anything helpful to take with her.